Tourist Knife/MT shopping suggestions in Salzburg and Vienna, Austria

[comis]

Hi, everyone.

This is an unofficial guide for tourists' knife/MT shopping in Salzburg and Vienna, Austria.  It is merely based on my own tourist experience, and by no means an exhaustive list.  Do view these as my humble service to those who has a little time to visit, and like to do a little knife/MT buying on the side.  If any locals could provide better guidance, I am all ears.

To begin, I like to thank those who had made suggestions on my travelling thread and also dks writeup for Vienna.  The following shop names/addresses should be accurate.  But if I have mistaken it, please feel free to correct me.


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Salzburg

I visited Salzburg for two days, and did get to visit and do recommend the following for a short trip:


Festung Hohensalzburg
Salzburg Dom/Christmas Market
Mozart residence
Getreidegasse



I have located two knife/MT shops in this town.


JA Zwilling Henckels (dealership)
Getreidegasse 47
5020 Salzburg, Austria








This shop is located at the very west end of Getreidegasse, it carries varous well known brand of knives and like many other shops on the street, it opens till about 6pm.

I bought a Mozart SAK there, since Mozart is born in this town and spent a good amount of his life in Salzburg.
But they run out of the Salzburg themed SAK.



Schebor(?)
Platzl 2
5020 Salzburg, Austria






This shop is in a small shopping strip, and quite close to the Mozart residence.  I didn't get a chance to visit it, but judging from the window, it looks like it might be around the same size of the last shop or a tad larger.



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Vienna

Vienna is a beautiful city, and has a lot to offer.  I found most of their audiotours in most musuems well structured and are easy to visit for foreigners.

I did visit the following and do recommend them:



Schloss Schonbrunn
Hofburg Wein
Kunst historisches museum wein
Stephaplatz



The following knife/MT shops are close to the Stephaplatz(St. Stephan's Cathedral or Stephaplatz subway station), all are within walking distance and the distance varies from 1 min walk to 15 min walk.  If you are interested, do click onto each map under the name of the shops, and notice its relative distance to St. Stephan's Cathedral(next to the Stephaplatz subway station).



1) ZWILLING SHOP DECKENBACHER & BLUMNER 
Frau Marianne Niederhofer
Jasomirgottstr. 2
1010 Wien
Phone: +43-1 5 32 69 45
Fax: +43-1 533 96 57
E-Mail: zwilling@solinger.at
Mo - Fr 09:30 - 18:30
Sa 09:30 - 18:00






This shop is extremely close to the Stephaplatz subway station, literally 1 min walk from it.  But it has very little victorinox products here and mainly carries kitchen knives. The female salesperson is extremely snappy and with the worst attitude I have seen in my entire Europe trip(despite my absolute best effort to remain polite, and all I did was to politely ask whether they carry any Linz or Salzburg themed SAK), I won't go in again even my life depends on getting a kitchen knife immediately.   



2) DECKENBACHER & BLUMNER
Karntner Str. 21-23
1010 Wien
Phone: ++43 1 512 31 90
Fax: ++43 1 512 31 90
E-Mail: office@solinger.at
Mo - Fr 09:30 - 18:30 Uhr
Sa 09:30 - 18:00 Uh






This shop is situated not far from the Stephaplatz subway station(probably a 10 min walk), and could be easily located on the main street.  South(SSW) of the St. Stephan's Cathedral, following the Karntner Strasse(a pedestrian walking-only street) and walk down south, it should be on your left-hand side.  As Dks mentioned in his thread, if you kept walking and see a big intersection with starbuck at left corner, you have walked way too far.(in fact, twice the distance it should be)

It is a large knife/MT shop that sells well known European/US brand knifes.  Some shopkeeper could speak in English and is easy to communicate with.  I got the Vienna themed and Austria flag SAK here.



3) Joh. Springer’s Erben
Weihburggasse 27, A - 1010 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-5127732
Fax: +43-1-5120309
E-Mail: wbg27@springer-vienna.com
opened from:
Mo-Fr: 9.30 - 18.30
Sa: 10.00 - 17.00


This shop is approximately SE of St. Stephan's Cathedral, about 15-20 min walk from the church.

I went to this shop based on dks suggestion, and I would categorize it mainly as a 'hunting shop' which carries expensive hunting appearal, expensive knives, guns, and watches.  There are a only few selection of MT or commonly known brands of knives.
(Sorry, I forgotten to take the pictures, but it is an upscale hunting shop and probably best I don't take pictures inside)



4) Besteck Kistl
Lichtensteg 5, 1010 Wein
Next to Topazz hotel










This shop is within 5-10 min walk from the Stephaplatz subway station(St. Stephan's Cathedral), almost directly N of St. Stephan's Cathedral on the map.

Maybe not as large as "DECKENBACHER & BLUMNER" but it is still a decent sized knife/MT/SAK shop.  It does carry the Austria flag, Mozart and Vienna themed SAK.  I arrived a little late(6:30) and they close at 6.  The shopkeeper is rather nice and ask me what I want as he departed the shop, but I already gotten what I could, and did thank him for his offer of the Austrian themed SAK.




5) Springer's club


Facing Besteck Kistl, just turn and you will see this branch.  It is a much smaller shop than the main flagship store, Joh. Springer’s Erben.  It has even fewer selection(or almost none) for knives/MT, no guns, and mainly fashion only.



I also went and visited Kagran station-Douzentrum shopping center, but after walking around for an hour, asking two info desks and three different outdoor shops, I couldn't find any dedicated knife shops there except kitchen knives.


p.s.

I also came across a fun looking comic shop, but it closed earlier.  Maybe someone could go visit them next time:

Comic Hutter







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Tips of finding/buying knife/MT as a tourist:
--Before you go, it best to find local friends/Conceirge of your hotel to verify the shop address/hours
--Again, name a few well known European brands of knives and check with hotel concerige to see whether the knife shop you are going does carry them.
--Not everything listed on BF/MTO are accurate or up-to-date, I have found some shops relocated or disappeared.
--Most shops close early, and on average, I'd suggest to go before 6pm
--There is correlation between knife/MT shop vs "JA Zwilling Henckels" kitchen knife brand.  Personally, it is about 70% chance of finding a knife shop while it is also a JA Zwilling Henckels dealer, in all the cities I visited.
--Use google map and 'street view' to see whether there is an actual shop there on the street, and check to see what's the walking distance to best plan your visits.


Good luck, and safe travelling!

[bmot]

That's a good guide, thanks, Comis! 


I didn't realise 6pm is -that- early for a shop to close...

[comis]

That's a good guide, thanks, Comis! 


I didn't realise 6pm is -that- early for a shop to close...

Bmot,

Thank you for the kind compliment!  This writeup is one of the few I plan to write, and hopefully it could be of service to anyone interested.  If anyone does have more suggestions, please by all means chime in! 

Whether 6pm is early will probably depend on whether you are the keeper or the shopper    For east Asia, a lot of retail opens late(10-11am) but stays open until later at night (9-11pm) since many get off work late and shop even later. 

[bmot]

That's a good guide, thanks, Comis! 


I didn't realise 6pm is -that- early for a shop to close...

Bmot,

Thank you for the kind compliment!  This writeup is one of the few I plan to write, and hopefully it could be of service to anyone interested.  If anyone does have more suggestions, please by all means chime in! 

Whether 6pm is early will probably depend on whether you are the keeper or the shopper    For east Asia, a lot of retail opens late(10-11am) but stays open until later at night (9-11pm) since many get off work late and shop even later. 

Ah, that does make sense. I think it's a (north-)European thing, then, probably Shops here typically close 6 pm-ish (though supermarkets are staying open later, these days, till as late as 10pm), though a lot of cities have one "shopping night" where shops can be opened until 9-ish. Then again, shops do indeed open earlier, as well.


And, I'll be waiting for more writeups 

[comis]

Ah, that does make sense. I think it's a (north-)European thing, then, probably Shops here typically close 6 pm-ish (though supermarkets are staying open later, these days, till as late as 10pm), though a lot of cities have one "shopping night" where shops can be opened until 9-ish. Then again, shops do indeed open earlier, as well.


And, I'll be waiting for more writeups 

Yes, I do get that feeling when travelling in Europe, and do come to respect that--maybe it's just different lifestyle/culture or people are more family oriented. 

I remembered when I was young, shops used to close around 8-9pm.  But as competition and rent kept going up over the years, people are getting off work later and later...and eventually everything close late.  Whether it is a good thing or not, I think that's large debatable.  But then, that's entire a new break-room topic.

I will do my best for the next few writeups! 

[dks]

Very good. 

I too got the feeling that the knife selection in Vienna (centre) is limited; I can find a better selection here as we do have a large number of hunters. There are at least 5 knife/multitool shops less than 5 minutes (by car) from where I live.

There may be a lot more shops if you could drive around Vienna but I do not drive in Vienna.

The shops in Vienna seemed dominated by US, UK and German knives. There do not seem to be many local makers. Springer seemed to have the most interesting selection and frienldy staff, but as you noted they are expensive.

To me Austrians (personality) seem like a combination of Germans and Italians and can be a bit sharp in some situations.   

[enki_ck]

Nice write up and pictures. I have to correct you a bit though.

Wein = wine (the one you drink)

Wien = Vienna (city)




And a few close up pics of the SAKs you bought would be nice. I've never seen a Mozart SAK.

[comis]

Very good. 

I too got the feeling that the knife selection in Vienna (centre) is limited; I can find a better selection here as we do have a large number of hunters. There are at least 5 knife/multitool shops less than 5 minutes (by car) from where I live.

There may be a lot more shops if you could drive around Vienna but I do not drive in Vienna.

The shops in Vienna seemed dominated by US, UK and German knives. There do not seem to be many local makers. Springer seemed to have the most interesting selection and frienldy staff, but as you noted they are expensive.

To me Austrians (personality) seem like a combination of Germans and Italians and can be a bit sharp in some situations.   

Dks,

I was hoping you will see this thread, after all you original thread was intrumental for locating those two I visited.  Would you recommend local brands or shops(short drive from Vienna) that people should visit around Vienna? 

[comis]

Nice write up and pictures. I have to correct you a bit though.

Wein = wine (the one you drink)

Wien = Vienna (city)




And a few close up pics of the SAKs you bought would be nice. I've never seen a Mozart SAK.

Yikes!  Too late to modify now, but definitely learn something new today.

I will take some photos for those soon, I still have Salzburg and Linz SAK to collect and hopefully I could find them soon someday. 

[Gareth]

Looks like a great trip comis, thanks for taking the time to write it all up.

[dks]

Comis, these were the shops I knew, as I just use public transport when in Vienna and do not look too hard for knife shops in Vienna.

There are a few good cigar shops, restaurants and I usually buy a selection of cured meats and chocolates from the Kangra shopping centre, but that is not really related to the forum here.

I will ask around for anything else next time I am there, but Vienna is just not a knife/multitool city. 

[comis]

Gareth, 
Thanks for reading! 

Dks,
I think if I come back to Vienna, I may like to visit sights that are less tourist oriented.  Thus the reason I like to venture out of Vienna, and may even want to do more knife/MT shopping out of town. 


A few more pix for what I got in Austria:

[enki_ck]

I like that Mozart one. Reminds me of the Mozartkugeln and makes me think that there's chocolate inside.

[comis]

hehe, maybe there is a chocolate pen inside...I did get a chance to see SAK chocolate in person, and they do look like a nice set of Huntsmen from a distance.